National Identity and Perceptions of Political Institutions in Europe in the Age of Migration

Early theories about support for political systems indicated that affection for one’s national community should be related to attitudes to specific components of the nation-state’s political system. However, we know very little about whether these are, in fact, related to one another at the individual-level in the modern day. Using a rare and relatively recent cross-national survey that includes items measuring connection to national community, perceptions of what it means to be a country-national, and trust in various institutions of national political systems, this paper shows that strong attachment to one’s national community may help to produce positive perceptions of political institutions, as predicted by these early theories. The paper also contends that in the modern age of mass immigration, emphasis on differing components of national identity is likely to have variable effects on perceptions of political institutions and that official government policies toward newcomers moderate this relationship.